Can you do that type of damage already? If no, is it thematically appropriate? If no, does it fill a hole in the party that desperately needs to be filled? That's how my undead warlock draconic soul sorcerer who studied anatomy got the staff of healing.
That’s how I do it too. I feel like it makes it more fun for everyone. Plus it’s not like I don’t have control over which magic items appear in the game. If it would be busted, I use something else
And there's kind of a way to restrict its use to basically martials without the requirement being "absence of spellcasting feature". Just make the requirement be "Proficiency in All Simple and Martial Weapons", though that'd exclude Monks...
@@TheAbrakadab It could be a late game item that has a tiny spirit within it, like a Hexblade or ego weapon that responds to the warrior spirit within the user, requiring the adventurer to have devoted the most of his potential into his martial skills (ie have at least 2 levels in fighter and 11 cumulative levels in classes that are not primary spell caster. This means the most this character can cast is 5th level spells, and while depending on if they use hybrid classes or subclasses to be able to upcast past 5th level the actual spells are only up to 5th level.
@@TheAbrakadab just say that you get one additional action surge per 3 levels of fighter. Easy. Can't easily dip to get use of it but fighters get 6 uses by Level 18
So much of casters' power was built around their insane drawbacks in the old days. Those drawbacks have been removed, but there have been no commiserate decrease in power.
@@migueldelmazo5244 Exactly, there was a lot more give or take with casters. Removing the give portion of casters really gave them a boost. And honestly, it feels they gave the give portion to martials these days.
And before Monty Cooke rolled up to the 3.x design team and said "I have a mighty boner for casters, lets buff them up the wazoo, and also nerf martials" Fortunately the nerf to martials wasn't applied in 3.x, but wizards are top tier in that edition for a reason, and fighters are... not. And so we get the 3.x saying "Linear fighters, quadratic wizards" Also his boner becomes totally apparent in his Arcana Evolved setting for 3.5, where the primary spellcasting classes eventually gain _unlimited 1st, 2nd and 3rd level spell slots_ _and_ they can weave spell slots together to make higher level slots, so technically they can (with patience) always have up to 5th level spells on hand. So... it's kind of his fault.
@@SymbioteMullet some where along the line they gave wizard unlimited 1st and 2nd level slots lol. It's just funny (sad). The fighter hasn't even gotten their 4th attack by that time.
I've always treated magic items as a toolbelt for non-casters as they move into the late game, and it always sucks that I'm the one who has to homebrew these cool legendary relics since the game has no interest in providing non-casters items like these. Every high level martial needs their Excalibur, or their Mjolnir, or their Frostmourne: something that gives them all the cool features that the class doesn't, preferrably in a way that plays better with martial features than not.
exactly, i dont think martials are that underpowered in the early-mid game like many people believe. I think if your DM is a little creative and the martials are built adequately, then its fine. Even our last Campaign that went to lvl 13, our big hitter was the gunslinger (granted he had magic pistols that were good but didn't cast any spells) BUT, late game is very different. I mean something like the robe of magi basically makes you a raid boss on its own. what does the figher get, and additional +1 making it a +3 or something sword....
@@deansmith3947 by level 3+ martials fall behind as spells from 2nd level upwards eclipse whole features. Our table considered banning martials several times as it wasn’t fun playing with a dead weight but mostly we come up with home brew to mend the issue
@@thesquishogods8015 Thats the thing though, a decently built martial isnt dead weight unless all the combats are the same thing everytime or the martials arent built well. Look at all the highest single target damage builds, with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions, they are all some sort of martial base with some magic thrown in for something like hex or hunter's mark. and single target damage is incredibly important. The one that does sorta straddle that line is of course the paladin or 'sorcadin' specifically but even then, you absolutely build martials that can be pretty close in terms of damage. out of combat versatility is sometimes hard for martials sure, but there are some options for that too. feats are great for that, which a couple martials get more ASIs then anyone so its very doable, or a level dip in something like rogue can give you lots of versatility if youre creative. Again, our level 13 campaign had a twilight cleric, Evo wizard, lore bard, and a gunslinger. and while nobody was "optimized" per se, the gunslinger was easily MVP in a fair share of fights. any "boss" fights were their time to shine. was easily dealing twice as much damage as anyone else most of the time. Calling all martials "dead weight" is not all on the game design. as players and as a DM, you don't have to really work hard or even homebrew much to make martials very fun and effective. Boring sure, but not dead weight. I know it's hard for this generation to ever find fault with themselves, but sorry, i think all this has more to do with something wrong at your table. I will grant it that yes, once you do start getting into the late game, the pure versatility of casters doers start overshadowing martials across the board, but martials arent "dead weight" until you start hitting like 6th level spells at the earliest. Or running like a single 3 round combat a day where spell casters can just cast nothing but their best spells. again, thats looking at the table not the game design as the game is designed for a few combats a day and is balanced with that in mind. i will admit, but i did state this above too, that late game martial items do suck. but that is a fix that usually takes about 10 seconds to solve. Also, in the last couple years, many of the martials classes (outside of barbarian) have gotten very good subclasses that bring some of that missing versatility. Rune knight, psy warrior, fey wanderer, soul knife, etc.
@Dean Smith I will say that I think martials are 100% behind the curve of casters in 5e it doesn't take much research or game knowledge to quickly see the difference in output between the two. But I do believe a big part of the disparity comes from the community itself no table I've been at or witnessed has ever actually required their casters to have the components required to use their spells, no tables try to run 2 or 3 combats a session (I know this ones tough to balance with session length) or some outright ignore spell rules because it ruins the "rule of cool" martials shouldn't be the only class forced to adhere to game mechanics and the moment those casters start burning through their resources and can't force the entire party to long rest for their sake the martials REALLY shine.
@@dajhier1 im not really trying to sound like martials are even near equals to full casters. but a lot of what you are saying is kinda my point. bagging on the design saying casters are so much more powerful than martials, then allow their casters to bend all these rules that were meant to help balance them out. and then requiring the martial to use a full action to switch a weapon. or the number of combats a day for most tables being 1 then yes, casters are going to blow martials out of the water, but again the game isnt balanced for that. Even then, martials still can fill a niche or two which it is a bummer on its limitations, but saying "all martials are dead weight after level 3" (which essentially was stated above) is dumb, even at a 1 combat a day table. Especially ranged martials, best consistent single target damage in the game if built well. granted, you might need a little bit of magic to make it sing ill admit. Id also guess if youre someone who think all martials after level 3 are dead weight, im assuming your 1 combat a day is against a blob of enemies all nicely grouped up. From experience ive seen 100% martials be very effective into the late-mid game, especially on days where we or adventures where taking rests had a lot of risk. Hell, how about as caster, you buff your martials instead of just lobbing fireballs around. and in some scenarios, twinning haste on two martials is better than a fireball. All in all yes, martials need better magic items, and in certain instances can be vastly outclassed. and it gets worse the higher you go, but with as long as your DM implements some varied combat and more than 2-3 round of combat on SOME days, the statement "martials are just dead weight" is honestly just willful ignorance. and that's been my point this entire time. Not saying they're perfect, not saying they couldn't use some buffing. But this game is a game of creativity, if your game doesnt have that, then why are you playing? there are many other games/systems if thats what you want
I remember getting the sunforger. It's a +2 which is nice, but the special ability is basically a weaker fireball, that asks for a lower save than a 5th level caster. Afterwards you also have to use an action to call the weapon back to your hand and it's usable once per short rest. I don't see why my action should be so much weaker than any spellcaster's, especially since I need another action to use my weapon again. it's so silly...
Ring of Action Surge, Wrathful Amulet (Rage, maybe with some rarer versions with one or two subclass features added on top whenever you Rage, besides the base version working as extra Rage charges), Opportunist's Shroud (adding pseudo-Sneak Attack dice equal to half the ones for the corresponding character level, on top of any Sneak Attack dice one might already have), Sash of Inner Strength (providing half your level in Ki Point pool, as well as Ki recovery over time in some way), Belt of Second Wind (free Second Wind once per hour or something), Obscuring Cloak (provides constant Light or Heavy Obscurement, depending on Rarity), Boots of Hiding (allow the use of the Hide Action as a Bonus Action), Armor Runes (add effects to base armors, like decreased weight, increased maximum dex bonus to AC, increased AC, removed penalty to stealth or any like that); And Tattoos or Rings of Fighting Styles (add the corresponding Fighting Styles to the character). Maybe even Bracers of Maneuvers, with built in Battlemaster Maneuvers and extra Superiority Dice.
@@carlosforma5978Ring of Ranger: Different version povides the best Features of each Ranger Subclass and has a 1d4 Charge Ring of Dread: Before combat initiative is rolled, the ring lets the user not be surprised and can choose to activate the ring full effect or not, if the wielder use 1 Charge, activates the Dread Ambusher feature Ring of Multi Attack: As part of your Attack Action you can choose to activate the ring and use 1 Charge to either activate Volley if using a Ranged Weapon Attack or Whirlwind Attack Feature if using Melee Weapon Attack Ring of Distant: When you use an Attack action, as part of that action you can activate Distant Strike Feature and instantly attack any creature within your Attack Range Animal Scrolls: Allows a Monk to learn special hidden Techniques, treated as being attuned but the effect stays even if the Scroll is far away from the reader or destroyed, only removed if a different Scroll is learned Scroll of the Bear: You have advantage on Grapling enemies, 2 times per short rest as part of the Grapling Action you can also Suplex the enemy dealing 3d8 + Wisdom Bludgening damage on a DC 16 Dexterity(Acrobatic) Check, the target is also Stunned regardless if its Immune to the Status, you can also use 2 Ki to activate this skill Scroll of the Tiger: You cannot be surprised, 3 times per short rest when a oportunity attack is performed instead of rolling for attack you can roll a Dexterity(Acrobatics) of 16 if the target is same size as player or 17 if larger or smaller, on a success you deal 4d8 + Wisdom Bludgening Damage and cause the opponent to become Paralyzed ignoring immunities Scroll of the Dragon: Once per day, you can either channel your inner dragon and fully regain all spent Ki including from outside sources, or as part of your Flurry of Blows you can instead roll a DC 17 Dexterity(Acrobatics) Check and deal 6d8 + Wisdom Force Damage
I know it isn't RAW, but at my table, you can make an Arcana check (DC = to 10 + spell level) to use a scroll if said spell isn't one your class can normally use. So even martials at my table can cast spells if the casters make them Spell Scrolls or if the Martials buy themselves a spell scroll or two from a vendor.
At this point I'm injecting fun mechanics for martials into weapons or items just to give them a different niche. It's more fun to have a sandbox of tools for everyone at the table.
I hate how many charges most items get. Casters can cast the same spell 4 times at most, or a little more depending if they recharge their slots in some way, but wands outright give you 7 free uses of a spell.
Other comments have addresses this elsewhere, but that was because wands and the like did not used to automatically recharge. If you had a wand of fireballs, you would need to recharge it by *manually* casting fireball into it during downtime.
I think the coolest magic item for a martial would be something like a bag of holding, but specialized for weapons, that allows you to summon/swap out your weapons with either a free action or a bonus action. A fighter could store all of their magic swords in there and always summon the one that fits the situation, or swap out the ones that have used up their charges for the day. Also, I personally really like the aesthetic. Like Gilgamesh from Fate.
Reminds me of the Iconoclast role from MoT (yes that gives spells but it gives spells designed to stop magic). a weapon that ends all spells on targets struck or that converts spells sent at you into temp HP could be nifty.
Sad part about that is it still restricts certain subclasses of martial classes (e.g arcane trickster) and half casters like Rangers as well as a martial who dips into a caster class or a martial with magic initiate and I'm not entirely sure how that would interact with racial spells either which could be fine for certain items but could potentially be a bit annoying
@@Evelyn-rb1zj something like this could really screw over quite a few martial subclasses. I remember reading somewhere that the only qualifier to be considered a "spellcaster" for the purposes of attunement is the ability to cast spells; meaning certain races always apply, but also means that some subclasses also apply! All that to say that if there was an attunement stipulation that said you *can't* have spellcasting would screw over, just off the top of my head... - 4e and Sun Soul monk. - totem Warrior and Wild Magic barbarians. - Arcane trickster/ Eldritch Knight. - high elves/ drow. - tieflings. - any of the Dragonmark races. - shadow monk. - Fey/ Shadow touched feat users. - Magic Initiate users. - Telekinetic users. - Telepathic users. I'm sure I'm missing a few, but that's quite a large enough range of classes/ subclasses/ races/ feat users that wouldn't be able to attune to an item that requires no spellcasting.
You use the potion and then have to make a con check vs. unintended side effects, rolled randomly on a brutal table. “Your movement speed is reduced by half for the rest of the day”, “You have disadvantage on attack rolls for spells on your next turn”, “Your highest stat and your lowest stat swap scores”
Wild that DND made those items exclusive to casters. Used to be a skill called use magic items that let anyone use magic items with sufficient intelligence.
@@solowolf7418 Not being able to use magic items should be the exception, not the rule. Magic Item Use should be like 3.5 where it was a universal skill check almost anyone could try to make.
@@solowolf7418 Because the gulf in power between martials and casters, even half casters, is too great. The party can only be made more versatile by allowing the rogue or fighter to cast from spell scrolls or use wands.
The power creep on the magic classes is insane, making all magic classes somewhat overpowered and leaving Marshalls in the dust is clear now that they have no intention of making Marshalls playable again
Gloves of distant strike - increase reach by 10 or even 15 feet. besides effects that damage the weapon directly, no more "when hit by a melee attack deal X damage to the attacker who stood too close to the acid monster"
This is why you give your martials belts of Giant strength, +3 gear & Efreti Armour et cetera. Martials have great magic items but most DM's are to scared to ever give good martial magic items out due to balancing but a wand of ''fire ball'' or web with 7 casts as you mentioned will generally mess up combat more yet DM's hand out wands sooner the a +2 or +3 weapon-armour. Caster magic items are better but the gaps isn't that vast & DM's cause it more the the what is in the books! The magic items you have to be cautious of giving out are the 1's that players can abuse due to description be to open ended. An immovable rod or Decanter of endless water as examples can have far more game breaking consequences then a wand or +3 item.
Ooh we gotta be careful not to give martials more than +3 weapons though, it would break the game if they could consistently hit their targets. Anyways 7 free fireballs a day woo! Guaranteed AoE damage from range at no cost!
Honestly, even if you go for the safest route of using charges only leaving a max of 1, that's still pretty bonkers. And even with no downtime to fully recharge them and the worst luck for every recharge, those magic items still give two castings of fireball and web respectively. Shoutouts to illusionist bracers: imagine any feat/feature giving BA attacks, but it's your entire attack action instead. That's what this is, and only casters get it.
Just put an arbitraty restriction on it. Can only be attuned by fighter/rogue/paladin/barbarian etc. You don't have to justify it any further than that. You can even specify levels, 5 or so levels of fighter doesn't seem unreasonable as a requirement for one or more extra surges.
Give them something which makes their first uncanny dodge each round free and have a free melee attack included? Or something which lets them use sneak attack twice in a turn like bracers of the peerless rogue.
Thing is as per rules of the game, game itself bars casting more spells per turn than 1. You canno cast 2 leveled spells is a turn, meaning the most a caster could do with action surge is a cantrip
Illusionist's Bracers on Warlock in the corner: Hi yes do you want to outcompete the fighter in the numbers of attacks you can make? With only a bonus action? An unlimited number of times per day? Step right up good sir.
They do require attunement and crafting by a spellcaster, however FUN FACT: RAW+RAI EVEN ONE SPELL MAKES YOU A "SPELLCASTER," even if you're a martial with no spell slots. Ugnug Skullcrusher, wolf-worshipping barbarian jarhead, can create and attune to a wand of paralysis because he can ritual cast speak with animals. Not a wand of fireballs because he can't ever know fireball. He can only attune to one of those. But wand of paralysis doesn't cast a spell so he doesn't need to know any specific spells to craft it. Sun Soul. 4 Elements. Totem Warrior. High Elves, Tiefling, Kobolds, etc. Most Dragonmarked races. Fey/Shadow Touched. Divinely Favored. Aberrant Dragonmark. Magic Initiate. High Sorcery Initiate. Artificer Initiate. Strixhaven Initiate. Gift of the Metallic Dragon. Telekinetic. Telepathic. Wood Elf Magic. Ritual Caster. If you want to get spicy, single level dips work too. Or 2 level dips if it's paladin or ranger. There's a million different ways to get one (1) spell.
I respect your optimism that wotc will do anything. But we both know wotc hasn't got the bravery or creativity to noticeably buff martials beyond giving them cantrip riders on weapon attacks.
One feat and thats solved. Divinely Favored, Fey Touched, Shadow touched or even mage of high sorcery background. Martials get extra feats, so using one to get access to every spellcasting magic item in the game doesn't feel that bad. Also, my DM has martial focused magic items. Ring of Extra Attack: when you take the attack action you make one additional attack. If you haven't moved on your turn, you can make an attack as a bonus action,when used your speed becomes zero until the end of your turn.
I didn't even realize that they never imported the Use Magic Device skill, cus that's not one of the meaningless/redundant skills from 3.5e. Weird that martials i've played with asked me to craft them scrolls so they can use them but in 5e that doesn't exist
even though it isn’t very consequential because people rarely use them, the majority of cursed items are more targeted towards martials than casters too. it’s weird how this applies to the homebrew scene as well, nearly every cursed item concept I see is a sword or some other weapon
caster magic items: this wand summons 100 doggies that all know fireball :) martial magic items: this is literally just a +1 longsword that tells u to burn orphanages
I have a good friend who has been playing D&D since the original release, back when elves and dwarves were classes, not races. He has always loved playing martial classes, but he laments how they are essentially supporting characters for spellcasters after level 9. Once spellcasters start getting level 5 spells, they can really do some game-breaking things that martials could never dream of.
So I have added a bunch of magic weapons and armor to my table, such as the Mail of Absorbtion, Blades of Bloodletting, Longsword of Honor, the Tollmakyr, and others to give martials more to do. They mimic magical spells, but are about utility or AoE damage. For example, the Greatsword of Ignion, which by using a bonus action and slamming the sword into the ground, the Ruby within the blade emits a violent explosion around the fighter, creating a self-ranged fireball as if it was casted as a 4th level spell. It can be done three times a day and the fighter gets resistance to fire and immunity to the sword's fireball blast.
Attunements are a big restriction in that. You only have 3. Martials don’t need to worry that much because they can carry +X weapons, armors and shields that do not require attune. I agree with your opinion, but just to share.
Yeah, and +X weapons that don't require attunement are boring. Yes, being able to hit more consistently is a good thing. But the wow factor still goes to the bard with a Wand of Fireballs who can now cast control spells without worrying about not having any damaging spells in their reserves.
PF2e solved this pretty decently. There's a skill feat called Trick Magic Item that allows martials to use wands without being spell casters themselves, as long as you pass a DC check average to the level of the spell cast from the wand. It requires you to invest a bit into the respective skill tied to the tradition (Arcana for Arcane spells, for example), but it allows flexibility to martials to pop a Longstrider or other low-level boosts.
I have a homebrew system in my world where there are crystals which function as their own spell scroll, come back on a long rest, and have their own attunement slots. This makes it so martial classes can still play around with magic in my games.
In Pathfinder, I believe that you can use wands as a martial so long as you have points in the "Use Magic Device" skill. I'm also not expert on old school D&D, but I thought there was something similar in those editions for martials.
Huh that's actually an interesting way to balance the two. Maybe make it so casters can create the items but melees can use them better. (Minor popular anime spoilers) . . . Like how Asta, from "Black Clover," can use the mana-draining sword best, since he was born without any mana, or how Deku from the series, "My Hero Academia," was the best host for the ability, "One for All," passed onto him because people with existing abilities get "overclocked" to the point that they die sooner while Deku was an empty vessel that had room to hold it.
This is how it’s supposed to work in the classic model. Your wizard or cleric can enchant the weapon or armor, but is still a glass-jawed weakling with 30 hp or a physically average dude with a club. Give the enchanted weapon and armor to the fighter, and they can face down a dragon.
My "ring of wrath of the gigants" autocasts enlarge on the wearer when he/she rages. Nothing beats the joy of the player of a gigant angry dwarf barbarian!
I while back I had made a homebrew magic Item I called 'The Vessel of Ki' . Its a necklace with a coin-like pendant inscribed with a mantra(I used the Om Gum Ganapati'yae Namaha mantra) inscribed onto it. This item allowed a monk to pour ki points into it. They would have to use an action expend a ki point to store it, but the item would hold it till used. (It could be filled up to 40 max, ended up having to change it to 20.) it could be used 4 times a day to regain a number of ki points as an action. Reducing the item's pool by however much they regain from it. The monk could only regain up to their normal/max ki points.
I did some calculations, Flametongue actually deals more damage 1-on-1 then infinite uses of Fireball, if it is wielded by a level 5 martial with Extra attack. Assuming +8 to hit it/16 spell DC vs 15 AC / +5 to save, the fireball deals am average of 20.875, while the flametongue greatsword deals 25.2 (assuming no rage bonus, no crits, no smites, no action surge, etc) and doesn't have to deal with magic resistance or legendary resistance, and most importantly you don't have to worry about hitting your allies
Those items require the ability to cast spells, which doesn't specify from a class. I played a drow rogue and, since drow get spells from their racial abilities, I got a wand of web.
House rule: Fighter finds a scroll of fireball. Fighter can use the scroll of fireball. It's not fun to trudge through a dungeon only to find a magic item you can't use.
I always use the homebrew rule that If a spell is written on a scroll if you can read the language of the original creator then you can cast the spell on the scroll then the scroll is used to cast but this means you don't need to say anything to cast this spell
One thing I'd like to see is additional attunement slots depending on whether you can cast spells or not. So if you are completely without spell slots, you can attune to 2 extra magic items for a total of 5. If you have half to third casting, you have 1 extra slot. If you have full casting, you have the base 3. Even if their items aren't necessarily better, it gives martials more to work with and an added bit of utility.
Once gave the party a “Circlet of Unyielding Rage” for the Barbarian. Gave multiple trigger charges for Rage. Technically it could be used by any class to gain the benefit of Rage, but if used by a non-Barbarian once the rage ended, they gained a level of Exhaustion due to them not being used to the strain Barbarian Rage puts on a person.
I honestly think the best way they can boost Marshalls is by allowing them to use magic items like this, when you think about it the people that would really need to use these magic items in real life are the people without magical ability or very limited magical ability. It's like how we have restaurants not for people that choose to cook at home but for people who either don't know how to cook or don't have the time to cook
In my games, anyone can use a wand/scroll. So martials get to use them but their stats might make some spell hard to hit with. Also i like to homebrew some cool weapons or armors for martials.
I have a concept in my world called “Books of Self”. Ancient magic items made by the god of prophecy millennia ago. Everyone who ever lived or will live has one but less than 1 in a million ever find theirs in life and few know they exist. The whole point is to amp up things you already have or expand on them. My Barbarian in one game for example found his through some very Lucky business deals with incredibly shady individuals. He managed to activate its initial properties which give him special combat maneuvers such as Sweeping Strike, Crushing Blow; and more. Some are used as part of an action and others are used as actions. It also gave him tank related artifact properties both good and bad, for example 1d6 per turn regeneration but only in combat, holy water within 100ft is destroyed, etc. he loves it and it helps keep the party (all of which otherwise are half or full casters) on an even playing field. The wizard can throw out a ton of lightning bolts, the sorcerer can use his planar Allies, and the artificer etc can do their things. The Barbarian meanwhile can fight hordes and stand a chance
A sword of swing to swing enemies on a cone, or a ring of step of the wind, or even a dash boots that lets you dash for free 3 times per day and benefit from disengage at the same time
A Ring of action surge is such a good idea. Or make it into an item a caster wouldn't be proficient in. Just like martials can't use wands. Or perhaps "when you land a critical hit with a mele attack regain your action or your movement speed for this turn" O
I still find it so incredibly stupid that a non caster cannot use a spell scroll. It's such a cool thing to see the rogue pull out an invisibility spell scroll or something. Like take the teleportation circle spell scroll from Goblin Slayer, that was such a creative scene I still give it as example to new players for using spell in creative ways.
item of sneak attack/item of roguish precision, if a *weapon* attack hits and meets the advantage/ally within 5ft no disadvantage criteria for gaining sneak attack you can expend a charge to deal a certain amount of sneak attack dice and if you expend more charges you get more dice If you already have the sneak attack feature and have already used it in your current turn you may expend one or more charges to make a second attack where if the attack hits and the rest of the sneak attack criteria still applies you may add the number sneak attack dice stated above Or something like that
After level 5 I give the players a bonus action attack that is pretty much a weaker version of a Battlemaster's maneuvers. They can only be used once per short rest and will do things like cause them to take damage from bleeding, or be knocked prone etc.
I would prefer these items to have no recharge mechanics. When they are spent, they are spent. 7 times in the course of an adventuring career you get to use fireball from that wand. Choose wisely.
You could easily give martials a similar flavor item. Example: +1sword of divine smite. Has 4 charges per day that recharge on a long rest. When attacking, you can choose to expend a charge. Expending a charge cast divine smite at your level divided by 2 rounded up. Boom, it's an item. It gives access to a skill they may not have. Doesn't give them extra action economy. but gives them the ability to do something cool and add more flavor. Divine spicy
That's why I love the magic tattoos (Tasha's) - bypass any and all scroll restrictions, but capped at level 5 spells. Perfectly balanced in my opinion. Yes, it gives casters more versatility, but now your Fighters, Monks, Rangers and Paladins can all have access to Shield and Absorb Elements
Was going to say one of my favourite magic items, the javalin of lightning, can be solid for martiales but then remembered its once per day and question why...
Here I go spouting nonesense on the internet :D TLDR: Make your own cool stuff if WotC won't + some of my ideas. I've homebrewed almost every magic item in the campaign I'm currently running. I have a party of 4 and they are all martials or half-casters... Some of the items I've made: A pair of gauntlets which heal the wearer 1d4+CON every turn, if they're raging. A bow which can change its damage type (fire, cold, etc.). A sword that gives +1 damage dice to any smite cast using it. An enhanced homunculous which doesn't require a bonus action to command and gets an HP buff (allows the artificer to have both homunculous and steel defender). I haven't introduced them yet, but for higher levels I've also considered making items that give extra actions (limited by charges), an extra bonus action per turn, crits on 19s (or -1 to number needed for crit). There's no problem with giving class features from other classes to items, especially if the class they're stolen from could benefit from it, too. If a wizard can turn people into dragons, then I, at least, am a strong advocate for fighter's having 4 action surges at higher levels. Make those magic items mean something, and give them out more generously. Watching the party make hard decisions between which good magic items to use and which to set aside, is an avenue of engagement that a lot of campaigns may never see even though it often fits really well. Remember that not every magic item requires attunement, make the powerful ones require it so that those attunement slots become really valuable. Helmets, boots, gauntlets, etc. can count as light/medium/heavy armor to limit who can use them. You can make magic clothing that doesn't count as armor at all for barbarians or casters. You can make an item with a feature that says anyone using it is proficient with it. Don't restrict yourself to WotC magic items, there's not enough of them and they're too caster focused. Make your own. Dont be afraid of giving big buffs, the martials really need it. Most importantly: dont make items higher than +3. It is forbidden.
IIRC they only did something similar to this for monks with the Dragonhide belt, which is a small buff for arguably the weakest or 2nd weakest martial in the game.
As a Forever DM I agree and usually ignore the spellcaster requirement for wearables. I also encourage my spellcasters to make custom items. Especially if it just magically recreates an existing feature, like action surge, it’s fair game!
I make homebrew weapons and items for my martials and half casters full casters I make an item for but they typically just gravitate towards one of the hundreds of items already there and just ask for small changes which I'm usually fine with. My martial classes get major bonuses to damage output as well as range. I have a samurai fighter who took dip into Rouge for a Ronin aesthetic. He has a katana that allows him to teleport up to 15 feet between targets making a lightning slashing attack dealing an additional 8d6 lightning damage in a 15 ft line. If he kills the target the player gets to do it again so long as he is in range. Session before last I threw a mob of assassins at them when they tried to enter a tavern. They were surrounded each enemy was between 5 and 15 ft from the next. He killed the whole bar. "As you walk into the tavern you are uneasy *player has the alert feat and rolls initiative gets a staggering 31* you draw your blade in a millisecond and like lightning you flash step through the room leaving a charred and smoldering mark on the ground your blade wreathed in a furious tempest arcing through the air at the throat of the first assailant. Never stopping you slide across the room in a 9 pointed star at the tip of each point crimson floods into the air super heated into plasma and igniting the bodies of the would be attackers. You end this slaughter by bringing your sword down cleaving the leader in two from neck to hip you separate this deadly foe who's own body hasn't even reacted to the mortal wound and his eyes haven't even shifted from the spot you once were. The next moment you find yourself in the center back where you started your shoes aligned perfectly with the charred evidence of your deed erupting in a chaotic and brutal crash of thunder shaking the whole tavern and quite possibly the village itself."
Every game I've played, Martials deal a great majority of the damage. I was talking with a friend who prefers playing fighters, and we concluded that at level 20 he'd be able to take down the Tarrasque on his own, without using magic items. The Tarrasque might win that fight, but it would struggle. Martials are plenty powerful. They get less toys to play with, but what they do get is often far more than enough to mow down the enemy without worrying about using up spell slots.
Its so easy as making boons for characters without spellcasting ability. For example, at level 10 they can get a strategist themed perk which gives advantagevin WIS and INT saving rolls while in combat (which are dumps for martials) and maybe other active effect, like advantage to 1 ally who can hear you or smth.
I’m currently working on a 5e homebrew martial spell adjacent system. It’s going smooth so far, and my players who I play test my madness on really enjoy it. Should have it on r/unearthed arcana in a month or two.
Meanwhile martials who literally just ask the DM: "hey can I go pledge myself to some powerful magnanimous entity, say trade my soul for a +3 greatsword?" And their to-hit runs away, and their damage bonus balloons up. Plus the weapon might aswell be Adamantine or sentient, aligned similarly with the character wielding it. You can break this even further by giving the weapon some spells that *it* can cast on a bonus-action command or as a reaction (Fly, Haste, Blink, Blur, Shield, Shield of Faith, Stoneskin, Deathward) to make the wielder even harder to kill. While this kind of item doesnt exist as is, weapons like the Sword of Kas and Defender do, and crafting your own as per the DMG is permitted by the rules of the game. And nobody is stopping you from creating a monstrous sword (with a monstrous price)
Ring of Actuon Surge sounds pretty cool, actually. Maybe have it scale with proficiency bonus (1+PB per long rest?) so you can give it out sooner. Seven Action Surges sounds like something higher tier that most players aren’t going to play. Also, I _really_ want to see a monk pull out the Seven Session Muda.
I'm going to playtest doubling base weapon dice to see if it helps martials. For example: Dagger: 1d4+mod > 2d4+mod Longsword: 1d8+mod or 1d10+mod > 2d8+mod or 2d10+mod Greataxe: 1d12+mod > 2d12+mod Greatsword: 2d6+mod > 4d6+mod If that doesn't work, maybe proficiency with weapons means you multiply the number of weapon dice by your PB, not just adding your modifier to the damage. 6d12 for a Barbarian at 17th feels fair when Wish can alter time and space at the same level
Wands are just fancier scrolls and the thing with scrolls is anyone cab tear a scroll and free the spell inside. This is not third or second edition with the skill called "use magic devices".
Aaaaaaand this is one of the driving forces behind making my own system. Martials suck, there aren't even as many pure martials as there are pure casters,and there isn't even equipment support for martials. So, my TTRPG project aims to create a new game where everyone uses a universal resource pool that scales with your character level, and whether you cast spells, execute anime Tome of Battle-style maneuvers, or whatever it is your class uses as a niche, it usually either has PB/Long Rest uses, or it uses this universal resource. Oh, and martials get maneuvers, the weapon/armor system is getting an overhaul, and casting a spell as an action (Unless it has a range of Touch) provokes an attack of opportunity from enemies within reach. Level that playing feild. But, on a 5e note... I'd love to see a magic weapon crystal that gives you Green-Flame Blade and Searing Smite, or Booming Blade and Thunderous Smite, or etc., and require Extra Attack for attunement.
To be fair you can just slap magic initiate on a martial and then they can use the items. Plenty of races have some kind of spellcasting too, but I still totally agree with your point
For the sake of discussion I would note that a lot of the spellcasting magic items would be of benefit to casters *who don't have that spell already*. Sure, being able to get more uses out of your favourite spell is good but you really appreciate having extra options in my experience and most items have their own spell save DC if that's not your primary stat. If you're willing to use a feat to pick up some spell casting you can use some of those spellcasting items for extra utility (twice with action surge). If your party members are spending downtime crafting scrolls what are you doing in that time? You could always try make potions or your own magic items.
Yeah... As a DM I ignore that "requires spellcasting" for wands in my games. The way I explain it is that the wand itself is imbued with the magic. However, wands in my campaigns can not be recharged. They are somewhat common though
As the god-emperor of my table my DM very graciously ignores the requires spell casting portion of magic items like this
Honestly i feel like itd be better to keep it but make more items martial can craft and use
Can you do that type of damage already?
If no, is it thematically appropriate?
If no, does it fill a hole in the party that desperately needs to be filled?
That's how my undead warlock draconic soul sorcerer who studied anatomy got the staff of healing.
@@noahjones9833 I mean yeah that would be better but also drastically more work
That’s how I do it too. I feel like it makes it more fun for everyone. Plus it’s not like I don’t have control over which magic items appear in the game. If it would be busted, I use something else
Well if he does that might as well ignore spell component costs for casters.
Ring of action surge sounds like it'd be pretty great late game.
And there's kind of a way to restrict its use to basically martials without the requirement being "absence of spellcasting feature". Just make the requirement be "Proficiency in All Simple and Martial Weapons", though that'd exclude Monks...
@@carlosforma5978 casters that are dipping into fighter for action surge could always just take the dip level 1 then to still gain the benefits
@@TheAbrakadab
It could be a late game item that has a tiny spirit within it, like a Hexblade or ego weapon that responds to the warrior spirit within the user, requiring the adventurer to have devoted the most of his potential into his martial skills (ie have at least 2 levels in fighter and 11 cumulative levels in classes that are not primary spell caster. This means the most this character can cast is 5th level spells, and while depending on if they use hybrid classes or subclasses to be able to upcast past 5th level the actual spells are only up to 5th level.
@@TheAbrakadab just say that you get one additional action surge per 3 levels of fighter. Easy. Can't easily dip to get use of it but fighters get 6 uses by Level 18
If rename it to a ring of recovery or something though
*Requires attunement by a spellcaster*
DM Frieza: I’ll ignore that.
*Furiously writing notes for ring of action surge*
Magic items in D&D where devised back in the day when spell casters did not have cantrips and had way fewer spell slots.
So much of casters' power was built around their insane drawbacks in the old days. Those drawbacks have been removed, but there have been no commiserate decrease in power.
@@migueldelmazo5244 or, like was requested by kobold, a boost to marshals to make up for it.
@@migueldelmazo5244 Exactly, there was a lot more give or take with casters. Removing the give portion of casters really gave them a boost. And honestly, it feels they gave the give portion to martials these days.
And before Monty Cooke rolled up to the 3.x design team and said "I have a mighty boner for casters, lets buff them up the wazoo, and also nerf martials"
Fortunately the nerf to martials wasn't applied in 3.x, but wizards are top tier in that edition for a reason, and fighters are... not.
And so we get the 3.x saying "Linear fighters, quadratic wizards"
Also his boner becomes totally apparent in his Arcana Evolved setting for 3.5, where the primary spellcasting classes eventually gain _unlimited 1st, 2nd and 3rd level spell slots_
_and_ they can weave spell slots together to make higher level slots, so technically they can (with patience) always have up to 5th level spells on hand.
So... it's kind of his fault.
@@SymbioteMullet some where along the line they gave wizard unlimited 1st and 2nd level slots lol.
It's just funny (sad). The fighter hasn't even gotten their 4th attack by that time.
I've always treated magic items as a toolbelt for non-casters as they move into the late game, and it always sucks that I'm the one who has to homebrew these cool legendary relics since the game has no interest in providing non-casters items like these.
Every high level martial needs their Excalibur, or their Mjolnir, or their Frostmourne: something that gives them all the cool features that the class doesn't, preferrably in a way that plays better with martial features than not.
exactly, i dont think martials are that underpowered in the early-mid game like many people believe. I think if your DM is a little creative and the martials are built adequately, then its fine. Even our last Campaign that went to lvl 13, our big hitter was the gunslinger (granted he had magic pistols that were good but didn't cast any spells) BUT, late game is very different. I mean something like the robe of magi basically makes you a raid boss on its own. what does the figher get, and additional +1 making it a +3 or something sword....
@@deansmith3947 by level 3+ martials fall behind as spells from 2nd level upwards eclipse whole features. Our table considered banning martials several times as it wasn’t fun playing with a dead weight but mostly we come up with home brew to mend the issue
@@thesquishogods8015 Thats the thing though, a decently built martial isnt dead weight unless all the combats are the same thing everytime or the martials arent built well. Look at all the highest single target damage builds, with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions, they are all some sort of martial base with some magic thrown in for something like hex or hunter's mark. and single target damage is incredibly important. The one that does sorta straddle that line is of course the paladin or 'sorcadin' specifically but even then, you absolutely build martials that can be pretty close in terms of damage. out of combat versatility is sometimes hard for martials sure, but there are some options for that too. feats are great for that, which a couple martials get more ASIs then anyone so its very doable, or a level dip in something like rogue can give you lots of versatility if youre creative. Again, our level 13 campaign had a twilight cleric, Evo wizard, lore bard, and a gunslinger. and while nobody was "optimized" per se, the gunslinger was easily MVP in a fair share of fights. any "boss" fights were their time to shine. was easily dealing twice as much damage as anyone else most of the time. Calling all martials "dead weight" is not all on the game design. as players and as a DM, you don't have to really work hard or even homebrew much to make martials very fun and effective. Boring sure, but not dead weight. I know it's hard for this generation to ever find fault with themselves, but sorry, i think all this has more to do with something wrong at your table. I will grant it that yes, once you do start getting into the late game, the pure versatility of casters doers start overshadowing martials across the board, but martials arent "dead weight" until you start hitting like 6th level spells at the earliest. Or running like a single 3 round combat a day where spell casters can just cast nothing but their best spells. again, thats looking at the table not the game design as the game is designed for a few combats a day and is balanced with that in mind. i will admit, but i did state this above too, that late game martial items do suck. but that is a fix that usually takes about 10 seconds to solve.
Also, in the last couple years, many of the martials classes (outside of barbarian) have gotten very good subclasses that bring some of that missing versatility. Rune knight, psy warrior, fey wanderer, soul knife, etc.
@Dean Smith I will say that I think martials are 100% behind the curve of casters in 5e it doesn't take much research or game knowledge to quickly see the difference in output between the two. But I do believe a big part of the disparity comes from the community itself no table I've been at or witnessed has ever actually required their casters to have the components required to use their spells, no tables try to run 2 or 3 combats a session (I know this ones tough to balance with session length) or some outright ignore spell rules because it ruins the "rule of cool" martials shouldn't be the only class forced to adhere to game mechanics and the moment those casters start burning through their resources and can't force the entire party to long rest for their sake the martials REALLY shine.
@@dajhier1 im not really trying to sound like martials are even near equals to full casters. but a lot of what you are saying is kinda my point. bagging on the design saying casters are so much more powerful than martials, then allow their casters to bend all these rules that were meant to help balance them out. and then requiring the martial to use a full action to switch a weapon. or the number of combats a day for most tables being 1 then yes, casters are going to blow martials out of the water, but again the game isnt balanced for that. Even then, martials still can fill a niche or two which it is a bummer on its limitations, but saying "all martials are dead weight after level 3" (which essentially was stated above) is dumb, even at a 1 combat a day table. Especially ranged martials, best consistent single target damage in the game if built well. granted, you might need a little bit of magic to make it sing ill admit. Id also guess if youre someone who think all martials after level 3 are dead weight, im assuming your 1 combat a day is against a blob of enemies all nicely grouped up. From experience ive seen 100% martials be very effective into the late-mid game, especially on days where we or adventures where taking rests had a lot of risk. Hell, how about as caster, you buff your martials instead of just lobbing fireballs around. and in some scenarios, twinning haste on two martials is better than a fireball. All in all yes, martials need better magic items, and in certain instances can be vastly outclassed. and it gets worse the higher you go, but with as long as your DM implements some varied combat and more than 2-3 round of combat on SOME days, the statement "martials are just dead weight" is honestly just willful ignorance. and that's been my point this entire time. Not saying they're perfect, not saying they couldn't use some buffing. But this game is a game of creativity, if your game doesnt have that, then why are you playing? there are many other games/systems if thats what you want
I remember getting the sunforger. It's a +2 which is nice, but the special ability is basically a weaker fireball, that asks for a lower save than a 5th level caster. Afterwards you also have to use an action to call the weapon back to your hand and it's usable once per short rest.
I don't see why my action should be so much weaker than any spellcaster's, especially since I need another action to use my weapon again. it's so silly...
This is the exact reason why they're called "Wizards of the Coast", instead of "Fighters of the Coast"
I remember this one comment that said that WotC are just a bunch of nerds that got bullied by jocks so hard that they decided to screw over Martials.
So you're saying the magic users need more stuff?
(Kidding aside, a ring of action surge would be pretty rad. Or even a ring of rage, or extra range)
Ring of Action Surge,
Wrathful Amulet (Rage, maybe with some rarer versions with one or two subclass features added on top whenever you Rage, besides the base version working as extra Rage charges),
Opportunist's Shroud (adding pseudo-Sneak Attack dice equal to half the ones for the corresponding character level, on top of any Sneak Attack dice one might already have),
Sash of Inner Strength (providing half your level in Ki Point pool, as well as Ki recovery over time in some way),
Belt of Second Wind (free Second Wind once per hour or something),
Obscuring Cloak (provides constant Light or Heavy Obscurement, depending on Rarity),
Boots of Hiding (allow the use of the Hide Action as a Bonus Action),
Armor Runes (add effects to base armors, like decreased weight, increased maximum dex bonus to AC, increased AC, removed penalty to stealth or any like that);
And Tattoos or Rings of Fighting Styles (add the corresponding Fighting Styles to the character).
Maybe even Bracers of Maneuvers, with built in Battlemaster Maneuvers and extra Superiority Dice.
@@carlosforma5978Ring of Ranger: Different version povides the best Features of each Ranger Subclass and has a 1d4 Charge
Ring of Dread: Before combat initiative is rolled, the ring lets the user not be surprised and can choose to activate the ring full effect or not, if the wielder use 1 Charge, activates the Dread Ambusher feature
Ring of Multi Attack: As part of your Attack Action you can choose to activate the ring and use 1 Charge to either activate Volley if using a Ranged Weapon Attack or Whirlwind Attack Feature if using Melee Weapon Attack
Ring of Distant: When you use an Attack action, as part of that action you can activate Distant Strike Feature and instantly attack any creature within your Attack Range
Animal Scrolls: Allows a Monk to learn special hidden Techniques, treated as being attuned but the effect stays even if the Scroll is far away from the reader or destroyed, only removed if a different Scroll is learned
Scroll of the Bear: You have advantage on Grapling enemies, 2 times per short rest as part of the Grapling Action you can also Suplex the enemy dealing 3d8 + Wisdom Bludgening damage on a DC 16 Dexterity(Acrobatic) Check, the target is also Stunned regardless if its Immune to the Status, you can also use 2 Ki to activate this skill
Scroll of the Tiger: You cannot be surprised, 3 times per short rest when a oportunity attack is performed instead of rolling for attack you can roll a Dexterity(Acrobatics) of 16 if the target is same size as player or 17 if larger or smaller, on a success you deal 4d8 + Wisdom Bludgening Damage and cause the opponent to become Paralyzed ignoring immunities
Scroll of the Dragon: Once per day, you can either channel your inner dragon and fully regain all spent Ki including from outside sources, or as part of your Flurry of Blows you can instead roll a DC 17 Dexterity(Acrobatics) Check and deal 6d8 + Wisdom Force Damage
I know it isn't RAW, but at my table, you can make an Arcana check (DC = to 10 + spell level) to use a scroll if said spell isn't one your class can normally use. So even martials at my table can cast spells if the casters make them Spell Scrolls or if the Martials buy themselves a spell scroll or two from a vendor.
It was a skill check in older editions. It should still be allowed IMHO.
At this point I'm injecting fun mechanics for martials into weapons or items just to give them a different niche. It's more fun to have a sandbox of tools for everyone at the table.
I hate how many charges most items get. Casters can cast the same spell 4 times at most, or a little more depending if they recharge their slots in some way, but wands outright give you 7 free uses of a spell.
Other comments have addresses this elsewhere, but that was because wands and the like did not used to automatically recharge. If you had a wand of fireballs, you would need to recharge it by *manually* casting fireball into it during downtime.
I think the coolest magic item for a martial would be something like a bag of holding, but specialized for weapons, that allows you to summon/swap out your weapons with either a free action or a bonus action. A fighter could store all of their magic swords in there and always summon the one that fits the situation, or swap out the ones that have used up their charges for the day.
Also, I personally really like the aesthetic. Like Gilgamesh from Fate.
A Magic item that requires you to NOT have spellcasting to work would be cool and feel good for us non casters
Reminds me of the Iconoclast role from MoT (yes that gives spells but it gives spells designed to stop magic). a weapon that ends all spells on targets struck or that converts spells sent at you into temp HP could be nifty.
Sad part about that is it still restricts certain subclasses of martial classes (e.g arcane trickster) and half casters like Rangers as well as a martial who dips into a caster class or a martial with magic initiate and I'm not entirely sure how that would interact with racial spells either which could be fine for certain items but could potentially be a bit annoying
Maybe it could have an arua of reduced magic around you so that magic attacks and effects are less effective
@@Evelyn-rb1zj something like this could really screw over quite a few martial subclasses. I remember reading somewhere that the only qualifier to be considered a "spellcaster" for the purposes of attunement is the ability to cast spells; meaning certain races always apply, but also means that some subclasses also apply!
All that to say that if there was an attunement stipulation that said you *can't* have spellcasting would screw over, just off the top of my head...
- 4e and Sun Soul monk.
- totem Warrior and Wild Magic barbarians.
- Arcane trickster/ Eldritch Knight.
- high elves/ drow.
- tieflings.
- any of the Dragonmark races.
- shadow monk.
- Fey/ Shadow touched feat users.
- Magic Initiate users.
- Telekinetic users.
- Telepathic users.
I'm sure I'm missing a few, but that's quite a large enough range of classes/ subclasses/ races/ feat users that wouldn't be able to attune to an item that requires no spellcasting.
This makes me want to homebrew things like Second Wind Stimpaks or Rage-in-a-Bottle that only work for Martials.
3rd Edition had potions that did literally that, and more
You use the potion and then have to make a con check vs. unintended side effects, rolled randomly on a brutal table. “Your movement speed is reduced by half for the rest of the day”, “You have disadvantage on attack rolls for spells on your next turn”, “Your highest stat and your lowest stat swap scores”
Wild that DND made those items exclusive to casters. Used to be a skill called use magic items that let anyone use magic items with sufficient intelligence.
There is a subclasss that allows magic item use that no one takes. It’s called thief
@@solowolf7418 Not being able to use magic items should be the exception, not the rule. Magic Item Use should be like 3.5 where it was a universal skill check almost anyone could try to make.
@@matthewchampagne5501 Why? So you can steal a magic item pick from a caster? Obviously it’s not that big a deal as thief is not a popular subclass
@@solowolf7418 Because the gulf in power between martials and casters, even half casters, is too great. The party can only be made more versatile by allowing the rogue or fighter to cast from spell scrolls or use wands.
@@solowolf7418 Do you just see DND as a competition between the players?
Gave staff of spiders to my martial. Used it like an oversized club after glueing people to the floor
The power creep on the magic classes is insane, making all magic classes somewhat overpowered and leaving Marshalls in the dust is clear now that they have no intention of making Marshalls playable again
Gloves of distant strike - increase reach by 10 or even 15 feet. besides effects that damage the weapon directly, no more "when hit by a melee attack deal X damage to the attacker who stood too close to the acid monster"
This is why you give your martials belts of Giant strength, +3 gear & Efreti Armour et cetera.
Martials have great magic items but most DM's are to scared to ever give good martial magic items out due to balancing but a wand of ''fire ball'' or web with 7 casts as you mentioned will generally mess up combat more yet DM's hand out wands sooner the a +2 or +3 weapon-armour.
Caster magic items are better but the gaps isn't that vast & DM's cause it more the the what is in the books!
The magic items you have to be cautious of giving out are the 1's that players can abuse due to description be to open ended.
An immovable rod or Decanter of endless water as examples can have far more game breaking consequences then a wand or +3 item.
Ooh we gotta be careful not to give martials more than +3 weapons though, it would break the game if they could consistently hit their targets.
Anyways 7 free fireballs a day woo! Guaranteed AoE damage from range at no cost!
*Eldritch Knight evilly laughing in a shadowy corner...
Honestly, even if you go for the safest route of using charges only leaving a max of 1, that's still pretty bonkers.
And even with no downtime to fully recharge them and the worst luck for every recharge, those magic items still give two castings of fireball and web respectively.
Shoutouts to illusionist bracers: imagine any feat/feature giving BA attacks, but it's your entire attack action instead. That's what this is, and only casters get it.
The bracers seem great for an eldritch blasting warlock.
Ring of actuon surge sounds amazing if it barred casting spells with said action surge. Wouldn't help the poor Rogue, though.
Was thinking this. Action surge just makes fighter a good dip before a casters goes full. And they can have armor and possibly a shield on top of it.
Just put an arbitraty restriction on it.
Can only be attuned by fighter/rogue/paladin/barbarian etc. You don't have to justify it any further than that.
You can even specify levels, 5 or so levels of fighter doesn't seem unreasonable as a requirement for one or more extra surges.
Give them something which makes their first uncanny dodge each round free and have a free melee attack included? Or something which lets them use sneak attack twice in a turn like bracers of the peerless rogue.
@@SymbioteMulletArtificer: “Allow me to introduce myself”
Thing is as per rules of the game, game itself bars casting more spells per turn than 1. You canno cast 2 leveled spells is a turn, meaning the most a caster could do with action surge is a cantrip
Illusionist's Bracers on Warlock in the corner:
Hi yes do you want to outcompete the fighter in the numbers of attacks you can make? With only a bonus action? An unlimited number of times per day? Step right up good sir.
They do require attunement and crafting by a spellcaster, however FUN FACT: RAW+RAI EVEN ONE SPELL MAKES YOU A "SPELLCASTER," even if you're a martial with no spell slots.
Ugnug Skullcrusher, wolf-worshipping barbarian jarhead, can create and attune to a wand of paralysis because he can ritual cast speak with animals. Not a wand of fireballs because he can't ever know fireball. He can only attune to one of those. But wand of paralysis doesn't cast a spell so he doesn't need to know any specific spells to craft it.
Sun Soul. 4 Elements. Totem Warrior. High Elves, Tiefling, Kobolds, etc. Most Dragonmarked races. Fey/Shadow Touched. Divinely Favored. Aberrant Dragonmark. Magic Initiate. High Sorcery Initiate. Artificer Initiate. Strixhaven Initiate. Gift of the Metallic Dragon. Telekinetic. Telepathic. Wood Elf Magic. Ritual Caster.
If you want to get spicy, single level dips work too. Or 2 level dips if it's paladin or ranger.
There's a million different ways to get one (1) spell.
I respect your optimism that wotc will do anything. But we both know wotc hasn't got the bravery or creativity to noticeably buff martials beyond giving them cantrip riders on weapon attacks.
One feat and thats solved. Divinely Favored, Fey Touched, Shadow touched or even mage of high sorcery background. Martials get extra feats, so using one to get access to every spellcasting magic item in the game doesn't feel that bad.
Also, my DM has martial focused magic items. Ring of Extra Attack: when you take the attack action you make one additional attack. If you haven't moved on your turn, you can make an attack as a bonus action,when used your speed becomes zero until the end of your turn.
I didn't even realize that they never imported the Use Magic Device skill, cus that's not one of the meaningless/redundant skills from 3.5e. Weird that martials i've played with asked me to craft them scrolls so they can use them but in 5e that doesn't exist
Warlocks in 3.5 had the "deceive item" ability, that let them roll a use magic device check, and then use any magic item. Warlocks are great.
even though it isn’t very consequential because people rarely use them, the majority of cursed items are more targeted towards martials than casters too. it’s weird how this applies to the homebrew scene as well, nearly every cursed item concept I see is a sword or some other weapon
caster magic items: this wand summons 100 doggies that all know fireball :)
martial magic items: this is literally just a +1 longsword that tells u to burn orphanages
I have a good friend who has been playing D&D since the original release, back when elves and dwarves were classes, not races. He has always loved playing martial classes, but he laments how they are essentially supporting characters for spellcasters after level 9. Once spellcasters start getting level 5 spells, they can really do some game-breaking things that martials could never dream of.
the in-universe explanation for this ofc being that casters are the ones making the items, and that theyre making the items for themselves
This. One thousand times this. And then one more.
thief rouge with a staff of the magi:
💪
🗿
So I have added a bunch of magic weapons and armor to my table, such as the Mail of Absorbtion, Blades of Bloodletting, Longsword of Honor, the Tollmakyr, and others to give martials more to do. They mimic magical spells, but are about utility or AoE damage. For example, the Greatsword of Ignion, which by using a bonus action and slamming the sword into the ground, the Ruby within the blade emits a violent explosion around the fighter, creating a self-ranged fireball as if it was casted as a 4th level spell. It can be done three times a day and the fighter gets resistance to fire and immunity to the sword's fireball blast.
Attunements are a big restriction in that. You only have 3. Martials don’t need to worry that much because they can carry +X weapons, armors and shields that do not require attune. I agree with your opinion, but just to share.
Yeah, and +X weapons that don't require attunement are boring. Yes, being able to hit more consistently is a good thing. But the wow factor still goes to the bard with a Wand of Fireballs who can now cast control spells without worrying about not having any damaging spells in their reserves.
Requires Attunement by a Spellcaster
Thief Rouge: “Is for me?!” 👉👈
PF2e solved this pretty decently. There's a skill feat called Trick Magic Item that allows martials to use wands without being spell casters themselves, as long as you pass a DC check average to the level of the spell cast from the wand. It requires you to invest a bit into the respective skill tied to the tradition (Arcana for Arcane spells, for example), but it allows flexibility to martials to pop a Longstrider or other low-level boosts.
I have a homebrew system in my world where there are crystals which function as their own spell scroll, come back on a long rest, and have their own attunement slots. This makes it so martial classes can still play around with magic in my games.
In Pathfinder, I believe that you can use wands as a martial so long as you have points in the "Use Magic Device" skill. I'm also not expert on old school D&D, but I thought there was something similar in those editions for martials.
Huh that's actually an interesting way to balance the two. Maybe make it so casters can create the items but melees can use them better.
(Minor popular anime spoilers)
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Like how Asta, from "Black Clover," can use the mana-draining sword best, since he was born without any mana, or how Deku from the series, "My Hero Academia," was the best host for the ability, "One for All," passed onto him because people with existing abilities get "overclocked" to the point that they die sooner while Deku was an empty vessel that had room to hold it.
This is how it’s supposed to work in the classic model. Your wizard or cleric can enchant the weapon or armor, but is still a glass-jawed weakling with 30 hp or a physically average dude with a club. Give the enchanted weapon and armor to the fighter, and they can face down a dragon.
"wizard of the coast please boost your martials"
WoTC: "best I can do is give monk powers to the bard but better"
My "ring of wrath of the gigants" autocasts enlarge on the wearer when he/she rages.
Nothing beats the joy of the player of a gigant angry dwarf barbarian!
A ring of action surge.... even better in the hand of a caster!
*casually throws these martial idea's into my campaign*
I while back I had made a homebrew magic Item I called 'The Vessel of Ki' . Its a necklace with a coin-like pendant inscribed with a mantra(I used the Om Gum Ganapati'yae Namaha mantra) inscribed onto it. This item allowed a monk to pour ki points into it. They would have to use an action expend a ki point to store it, but the item would hold it till used. (It could be filled up to 40 max, ended up having to change it to 20.) it could be used 4 times a day to regain a number of ki points as an action. Reducing the item's pool by however much they regain from it. The monk could only regain up to their normal/max ki points.
reminds me of my dm's homebrew rule of treating my echo knight as a spellcaster because spaming your echo is using magic constantly 24/7
I did some calculations, Flametongue actually deals more damage 1-on-1 then infinite uses of Fireball, if it is wielded by a level 5 martial with Extra attack.
Assuming +8 to hit it/16 spell DC vs 15 AC / +5 to save, the fireball deals am average of 20.875, while the flametongue greatsword deals 25.2 (assuming no rage bonus, no crits, no smites, no action surge, etc) and doesn't have to deal with magic resistance or legendary resistance, and most importantly you don't have to worry about hitting your allies
Hadn't considered this detail in caster vs martial debate. Really good point!
a powerfull martial is a happy martial
Thief Rogue: "Reality can be whatever I want it to be..."
Those items require the ability to cast spells, which doesn't specify from a class. I played a drow rogue and, since drow get spells from their racial abilities, I got a wand of web.
House rule:
Fighter finds a scroll of fireball.
Fighter can use the scroll of fireball.
It's not fun to trudge through a dungeon only to find a magic item you can't use.
I always use the homebrew rule that If a spell is written on a scroll if you can read the language of the original creator then you can cast the spell on the scroll then the scroll is used to cast but this means you don't need to say anything to cast this spell
I homebrewed a feat that lets martials use your scrolls because I'm playing a scribe and didn't wanna leave my fighter outta the fun.
One thing I'd like to see is additional attunement slots depending on whether you can cast spells or not.
So if you are completely without spell slots, you can attune to 2 extra magic items for a total of 5. If you have half to third casting, you have 1 extra slot. If you have full casting, you have the base 3. Even if their items aren't necessarily better, it gives martials more to work with and an added bit of utility.
You know what, I was with you, but when you brought up the last of a ring of 7 action surges it really put things into perspective.
Once gave the party a “Circlet of Unyielding Rage” for the Barbarian. Gave multiple trigger charges for Rage. Technically it could be used by any class to gain the benefit of Rage, but if used by a non-Barbarian once the rage ended, they gained a level of Exhaustion due to them not being used to the strain Barbarian Rage puts on a person.
I honestly think the best way they can boost Marshalls is by allowing them to use magic items like this, when you think about it the people that would really need to use these magic items in real life are the people without magical ability or very limited magical ability. It's like how we have restaurants not for people that choose to cook at home but for people who either don't know how to cook or don't have the time to cook
The Thief subclass feature use magic item makes more sense now
In my games, anyone can use a wand/scroll. So martials get to use them but their stats might make some spell hard to hit with. Also i like to homebrew some cool weapons or armors for martials.
Fun thing about D&D: as a DM, if you want martials to have better magic items, make your own and give them to your martials.
I have a concept in my world called “Books of Self”. Ancient magic items made by the god of prophecy millennia ago. Everyone who ever lived or will live has one but less than 1 in a million ever find theirs in life and few know they exist. The whole point is to amp up things you already have or expand on them. My Barbarian in one game for example found his through some very Lucky business deals with incredibly shady individuals. He managed to activate its initial properties which give him special combat maneuvers such as Sweeping Strike, Crushing Blow; and more. Some are used as part of an action and others are used as actions. It also gave him tank related artifact properties both good and bad, for example 1d6 per turn regeneration but only in combat, holy water within 100ft is destroyed, etc. he loves it and it helps keep the party (all of which otherwise are half or full casters) on an even playing field. The wizard can throw out a ton of lightning bolts, the sorcerer can use his planar Allies, and the artificer etc can do their things. The Barbarian meanwhile can fight hordes and stand a chance
This gives me an idea for combat stimulants for my dnd setting
A sword of swing to swing enemies on a cone, or a ring of step of the wind, or even a dash boots that lets you dash for free 3 times per day and benefit from disengage at the same time
A Ring of action surge is such a good idea. Or make it into an item a caster wouldn't be proficient in. Just like martials can't use wands.
Or perhaps "when you land a critical hit with a mele attack regain your action or your movement speed for this turn"
O
I still find it so incredibly stupid that a non caster cannot use a spell scroll.
It's such a cool thing to see the rogue pull out an invisibility spell scroll or something. Like take the teleportation circle spell scroll from Goblin Slayer, that was such a creative scene I still give it as example to new players for using spell in creative ways.
Fine, I’ll just make a homebrew item that grants Action Surge.
item of sneak attack/item of roguish precision, if a *weapon* attack hits and meets the advantage/ally within 5ft no disadvantage criteria for gaining sneak attack you can expend a charge to deal a certain amount of sneak attack dice and if you expend more charges you get more dice
If you already have the sneak attack feature and have already used it in your current turn you may expend one or more charges to make a second attack where if the attack hits and the rest of the sneak attack criteria still applies you may add the number sneak attack dice stated above
Or something like that
After level 5 I give the players a bonus action attack that is pretty much a weaker version of a Battlemaster's maneuvers. They can only be used once per short rest and will do things like cause them to take damage from bleeding, or be knocked prone etc.
I would prefer these items to have no recharge mechanics. When they are spent, they are spent. 7 times in the course of an adventuring career you get to use fireball from that wand. Choose wisely.
You could easily give martials a similar flavor item. Example: +1sword of divine smite. Has 4 charges per day that recharge on a long rest. When attacking, you can choose to expend a charge. Expending a charge cast divine smite at your level divided by 2 rounded up.
Boom, it's an item. It gives access to a skill they may not have. Doesn't give them extra action economy. but gives them the ability to do something cool and add more flavor. Divine spicy
Me as a dm: yeah, I'm going to ignore that you need to be a spellcaster.
That's why I love the magic tattoos (Tasha's) - bypass any and all scroll restrictions, but capped at level 5 spells. Perfectly balanced in my opinion. Yes, it gives casters more versatility, but now your Fighters, Monks, Rangers and Paladins can all have access to Shield and Absorb Elements
Was going to say one of my favourite magic items, the javalin of lightning, can be solid for martiales but then remembered its once per day and question why...
Here I go spouting nonesense on the internet :D
TLDR: Make your own cool stuff if WotC won't + some of my ideas.
I've homebrewed almost every magic item in the campaign I'm currently running. I have a party of 4 and they are all martials or half-casters...
Some of the items I've made:
A pair of gauntlets which heal the wearer 1d4+CON every turn, if they're raging.
A bow which can change its damage type (fire, cold, etc.).
A sword that gives +1 damage dice to any smite cast using it.
An enhanced homunculous which doesn't require a bonus action to command and gets an HP buff (allows the artificer to have both homunculous and steel defender).
I haven't introduced them yet, but for higher levels I've also considered making items that give extra actions (limited by charges), an extra bonus action per turn, crits on 19s (or -1 to number needed for crit).
There's no problem with giving class features from other classes to items, especially if the class they're stolen from could benefit from it, too. If a wizard can turn people into dragons, then I, at least, am a strong advocate for fighter's having 4 action surges at higher levels.
Make those magic items mean something, and give them out more generously. Watching the party make hard decisions between which good magic items to use and which to set aside, is an avenue of engagement that a lot of campaigns may never see even though it often fits really well.
Remember that not every magic item requires attunement, make the powerful ones require it so that those attunement slots become really valuable.
Helmets, boots, gauntlets, etc. can count as light/medium/heavy armor to limit who can use them. You can make magic clothing that doesn't count as armor at all for barbarians or casters. You can make an item with a feature that says anyone using it is proficient with it.
Don't restrict yourself to WotC magic items, there's not enough of them and they're too caster focused. Make your own. Dont be afraid of giving big buffs, the martials really need it.
Most importantly: dont make items higher than +3. It is forbidden.
Dm: you can't use that item it's for spellcasters only and your a non magic class
Mr: but my tiefling can cast spells
Dm: but your not a spellcaster
IIRC they only did something similar to this for monks with the Dragonhide belt, which is a small buff for arguably the weakest or 2nd weakest martial in the game.
As a Forever DM I agree and usually ignore the spellcaster requirement for wearables. I also encourage my spellcasters to make custom items. Especially if it just magically recreates an existing feature, like action surge, it’s fair game!
I made a Belt of Ki for my Monk that works kind of like the pearl of power, but for ki points.
I honestly had no idea wands like that needed attunement to use, or required spellcasting.
I make homebrew weapons and items for my martials and half casters full casters I make an item for but they typically just gravitate towards one of the hundreds of items already there and just ask for small changes which I'm usually fine with. My martial classes get major bonuses to damage output as well as range. I have a samurai fighter who took dip into Rouge for a Ronin aesthetic. He has a katana that allows him to teleport up to 15 feet between targets making a lightning slashing attack dealing an additional 8d6 lightning damage in a 15 ft line. If he kills the target the player gets to do it again so long as he is in range. Session before last I threw a mob of assassins at them when they tried to enter a tavern. They were surrounded each enemy was between 5 and 15 ft from the next. He killed the whole bar. "As you walk into the tavern you are uneasy *player has the alert feat and rolls initiative gets a staggering 31* you draw your blade in a millisecond and like lightning you flash step through the room leaving a charred and smoldering mark on the ground your blade wreathed in a furious tempest arcing through the air at the throat of the first assailant. Never stopping you slide across the room in a 9 pointed star at the tip of each point crimson floods into the air super heated into plasma and igniting the bodies of the would be attackers. You end this slaughter by bringing your sword down cleaving the leader in two from neck to hip you separate this deadly foe who's own body hasn't even reacted to the mortal wound and his eyes haven't even shifted from the spot you once were. The next moment you find yourself in the center back where you started your shoes aligned perfectly with the charred evidence of your deed erupting in a chaotic and brutal crash of thunder shaking the whole tavern and quite possibly the village itself."
You can be a martial, take a feat that gives you spellcasting and bam you can attune to any of them
Every game I've played, Martials deal a great majority of the damage. I was talking with a friend who prefers playing fighters, and we concluded that at level 20 he'd be able to take down the Tarrasque on his own, without using magic items. The Tarrasque might win that fight, but it would struggle. Martials are plenty powerful. They get less toys to play with, but what they do get is often far more than enough to mow down the enemy without worrying about using up spell slots.
Its so easy as making boons for characters without spellcasting ability. For example, at level 10 they can get a strategist themed perk which gives advantagevin WIS and INT saving rolls while in combat (which are dumps for martials) and maybe other active effect, like advantage to 1 ally who can hear you or smth.
I’m currently working on a 5e homebrew martial spell adjacent system. It’s going smooth so far, and my players who I play test my madness on really enjoy it. Should have it on r/unearthed arcana in a month or two.
At my table i just rule any body can use a spell scroll, i treat them like Spell Wroght tatoos. Just anybody can use them
Meanwhile martials who literally just ask the DM: "hey can I go pledge myself to some powerful magnanimous entity, say trade my soul for a +3 greatsword?"
And their to-hit runs away, and their damage bonus balloons up. Plus the weapon might aswell be Adamantine or sentient, aligned similarly with the character wielding it.
You can break this even further by giving the weapon some spells that *it* can cast on a bonus-action command or as a reaction (Fly, Haste, Blink, Blur, Shield, Shield of Faith, Stoneskin, Deathward) to make the wielder even harder to kill. While this kind of item doesnt exist as is, weapons like the Sword of Kas and Defender do, and crafting your own as per the DMG is permitted by the rules of the game. And nobody is stopping you from creating a monstrous sword (with a monstrous price)
[Angrily pulls out 4e adventurer vault and convert them to 5e]
Ring of Actuon Surge sounds pretty cool, actually. Maybe have it scale with proficiency bonus (1+PB per long rest?) so you can give it out sooner. Seven Action Surges sounds like something higher tier that most players aren’t going to play.
Also, I _really_ want to see a monk pull out the Seven Session Muda.
I'm going to playtest doubling base weapon dice to see if it helps martials. For example:
Dagger: 1d4+mod > 2d4+mod
Longsword: 1d8+mod or 1d10+mod > 2d8+mod or 2d10+mod
Greataxe: 1d12+mod > 2d12+mod
Greatsword: 2d6+mod > 4d6+mod
If that doesn't work, maybe proficiency with weapons means you multiply the number of weapon dice by your PB, not just adding your modifier to the damage. 6d12 for a Barbarian at 17th feels fair when Wish can alter time and space at the same level
Wands are just fancier scrolls and the thing with scrolls is anyone cab tear a scroll and free the spell inside. This is not third or second edition with the skill called "use magic devices".
I like to play scrolls as a consumable anyone can use, my idea is basically that scrolls physically burn up with magic when used
Mace of Fireball. On hit, if you are still holding the mace it casts Fireball on the target.
Wait, WANDS require a spellcasting feature to use?! What the [RUclips]!
Aaaaaaand this is one of the driving forces behind making my own system. Martials suck, there aren't even as many pure martials as there are pure casters,and there isn't even equipment support for martials.
So, my TTRPG project aims to create a new game where everyone uses a universal resource pool that scales with your character level, and whether you cast spells, execute anime Tome of Battle-style maneuvers, or whatever it is your class uses as a niche, it usually either has PB/Long Rest uses, or it uses this universal resource. Oh, and martials get maneuvers, the weapon/armor system is getting an overhaul, and casting a spell as an action (Unless it has a range of Touch) provokes an attack of opportunity from enemies within reach. Level that playing feild.
But, on a 5e note... I'd love to see a magic weapon crystal that gives you Green-Flame Blade and Searing Smite, or Booming Blade and Thunderous Smite, or etc., and require Extra Attack for attunement.
To be fair you can just slap magic initiate on a martial and then they can use the items. Plenty of races have some kind of spellcasting too, but I still totally agree with your point
Magic initiate doesn't meet the prerequisite.
For the sake of discussion I would note that a lot of the spellcasting magic items would be of benefit to casters *who don't have that spell already*. Sure, being able to get more uses out of your favourite spell is good but you really appreciate having extra options in my experience and most items have their own spell save DC if that's not your primary stat. If you're willing to use a feat to pick up some spell casting you can use some of those spellcasting items for extra utility (twice with action surge). If your party members are spending downtime crafting scrolls what are you doing in that time? You could always try make potions or your own magic items.
"The best magic items in the game require spellcasting."
That's because the best magic items in the game give you spells. 😊
Yeah... As a DM I ignore that "requires spellcasting" for wands in my games. The way I explain it is that the wand itself is imbued with the magic. However, wands in my campaigns can not be recharged. They are somewhat common though